It has been proved that the interactive teaching methods are effective to involve most students and motivate them in mastering course materials.
Many educators agree that using the interactive teaching methods is not only an option but also an ethical mandatory rule for all instructors.
There are several crucial issues in applying the interactive teaching methods for engineering programs (courses):
- an instructor should ask interesting and tricky questions w.r.t to his/her course material contents
- an instructor should encourage all attempted answers or raised questions by his/her students
- an instructor should establish sufficient time room to ask questions and discuss while lecturing. A pure lecturing part should not be longer than 6 to 8 minutes without a stop for questions and short discussions
- an instructor should highlight real life examples and applications of all theoretical derivations shown via pictures, animations and videos
- and so forth.
Use of interactive teaching methods in engineering:
- In graduate programs, it is relatively easier to motivate and have most or all students in the classroom actively involved. Since the class size is smaller and graduate students are more motivated in learning.
- in undergraduate programs in particular in large class sizes, it is not as straightforward or even a challenging issue to motivate most students. Many of the undergraduate students are shy and not willing to ask questions or answer to the posed questions by their instructors.
So the question is: how to motivate and encourage the undergraduate students in engineering programs to be active learners and actively participate in-class discussions.
Thank you for your invaluable contributions to this open discussion.
Definitely. Interactive teaching is very much effective and beneficial for students and teachers too.
Yes I agree with the openion that motivation, encouragement which are important tool to get desired result comes in better way for anyone through classroom teaching
Sulaymon Eshkabilov
Your question is one often asked by almost every single teacher of English as a foreign language. As a teacher myself and I have taught for years ESP for science students, I found that learners seem to be highly motivated at the beginning of the term, but then motivation loses momentum as they start to encounter difficulties or get disappointed with their performances . As a teacher, I try to engage them in interactive activities and encourage them to even make mistakes on the ground that we could learn more effectively by facing our errors rather than keeping them out of sight. I tend to divide them into groups, placing one good student in each group to help the weak ones. I have also tried giving then single or even group tasks to complete within a time limit. In all, my methods pay off with some learners and do not with others. Motivation is a very tricky thing and it often frustrates teachers to see how low is the motivation of the learners.
It’s impossible to understate the importance of interactive learning ina school environment, especially as recent developments in technology have, in turn,brought about ground-breaking changes to the way that kids learn.In essence, interactive learning espouses a “hands-on” approach which goes above and beyond textbooks to encourage student engagement and knowledge retention. Far from being a method of teaching reserved for only elementary-level students, the notion of the interactive classroom has been realised even at the highest stages of education (we’re talking tertiary institutions like Harvard!) - but if you still need more convincing,have a read of the following benefits.
Dear Prof. Sulaymon Eshkabilov ,
I have a strong opinion about this discussion and I do not intend to be disrespectful, but reading everything you wrote I think the main problem is to be an "instructor" and not a "teacher"!
Students need teachers, not instructors!
It is a challenge to keep our students interested, it always has been, even in person. Today I don’t teach more disciplines at undergraduation, I got tired. I teach subjects only in the master's degree in engineering, and as you said yourself, in this case it is even easier remotely class. They have a natural interest!
Anyway, I applied to my last engineering undergraduation classes, the "flipped classrom" technique, and got great results. I imagine that you already know the technique, and I believe that it can also be applied in remote undergraduate classes.
But I think that nothing will be enough, as long as there is no teacher teaching classes. Instructors are trainers, and engineering students do not need trainers, they need to have someone who is able to open their "minds and hearts".
Sorry for being very sincere and pragmatic.
I wish you well and thank you for your discussion and concerns, many of share it concerns.
Best Regards,
Prof. Wiltgen
PS:
Article Flipped Classroom Approach
Conference Paper The Flipped Classroom
Article Flipped Learning in Engineering Education
Article Exploring the Feasibility of Implementing Flipped Classroom ...
Conference Paper The flipped classroom in Engineering Education: A survey of ...
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